Often we struggle to let go of the baggage of our past and pick up a new life. This is the truth of every human being. The only difference is that some cling to this baggage much longer, whereas others have the courage to let go of their fear of change and dive into the new life.
This change happens in everyone’s life whether you like it or not. For some it is in the form of graduating from college and getting into a career; for some it is getting married; some one loses a loved one and has to embrace the reality of a new life. The change comes in different forms and intensity and makes it imperative for us to let go of our old self and embrace the life that is ahead of us. In the process we also get transformed as it is part of the process.
This process of reinventing oneself either by choice or otherwise has been described very beautifully in the below poem “Fear” written by Kahlil Gibran (1883 – 1931), a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist. The striking part of this poem is its simplicity. Usually we have seen that poetry is often verbose and replete with rhyming words, however in his poem Fear, Gibran has expressed his thoughts in a very simple, lucid and easy to understand language. And to be able to do that is magical.
As always, I urge you to read the below lines slowly and reflect on it after you have finished reading.
It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.
I hope the last line was able to create a moment of epiphany for you. It sure did for me.
You must be logged in to post a comment.